If a movement can be defined as a moment when people across time zones and borders act simultaneously on the same idea, then the design week movement is verifiable. In the last three years, design festivals and design weeks have mushroomed across the U.S. in cities including Columbus, Portland, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Baltimore, and Detroit, as well as abroad, in Beijing, Singapore, Moscow, and Paris.

The ads in the real estate section of the Sunday New York Times are a barometer of perceived need: what we think about when we are at our hungriest, our most grasping, our most insecure. Like the Times’ wedding announcements—which are now detailed narratives about love at first sight, missed opportunities, and second chances—the ads are a literary form dealing primarily with desire. With little more than newsprint and ink, they dangle the hope that we will someday carve out a permanent place in this turbulent city. They whisper the word “stability.”

Welcome to the era of the megacity. The world has more big cities than at any time in history, and those cities are larger than they have ever been. There are now more than 30 urban centers with populations in excess of ten million. The biggest megalopolis of all is Tokyo, which clocks in at over 35 million souls, but more than 75—75!—cities boast populations of more than five million. For the first time, the global population is more than 50 percent urban; a century ago that figure stood at only 10 percent. In another 40 years, if demographers are correct, it will jump to a staggering 75 percent. In the words of Rem Koolhaas, the bard of urban bigness, “more than ever, the city is all we have.”